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It has been almost 2 years since I have done any Aikido but in Judo last night I was practicing with a new student with experience in Aiki ju jitsu.

He asked me to do some strikes at him, he was trying to do Jujitsu techniques on me but could not get them to work. I asked him to do the same to me and I practically threw him across the room onto his face with Ikkyo and then planted him on his back with kotegashi.

After playing paintball with some friends, I was riding on the tailgate of my friend's pickup truck. When he drove through a little mud, he momentarily lost traction. He gave the engine more gas, and the truck surged forward after regaining traction. The truck's bedliner was very smooth, so I didn't move quite as fast as the truck did. I knew that I was going to slip off, so I threw my stuff into the lap of the guy sitting next to me. Thankfully, the truck only got up to a little over five miles an hour. I dropped into a backward ukemi roll and ran to catch up to them. The look on my friend's face when I sat back down was pretty comical. Often it's in ways that surprise us, but aikido definitely works!!

It sounds to me that you are a much better martial artist than this other fellow. You might have used a aikido technique, but that is irrelevant. If your life is being threatened does it matter which technique, aikido or otherwise, you use? Your training in Aikido has allowed you to become a strong martial artist, take that in and enjoy it, give credit to yourself. Also his weaknesses are not examples of the weakness of Aiki-jujutsu but instead show the weakness of his martial ability.

It has been almost 2 years since I have done any Aikido but in Judo last night I was practicing with a new student with experience in Aiki ju jitsu.

He asked me to do some strikes at him, he was trying to do Jujitsu techniques on me but could not get them to work. I asked him to do the same to me and I practically threw him across the room onto his face with Ikkyo and then planted him on his back with kotegashi.

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."

"A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence."

unfortunately, according to George Lucas I have gone to the dark side since I support George W. Bush, so I am now Darth Michael, all hope is lost.

[rant]
I voted for GW too, this time, but when I saw the article on that in USA Today and I almost went through the roof. The same liberals who may be praising Mr. Lucas for taking a stand against the Iraq war were blasting him for being a "racist" in Episode 1. (No such comments about Ep 2 -- I guess they were in a bit of a slump.) Never mind the fact that he drew up the general outline for Darth Vader's backstory something like 25 years ago. At least. Osama, GW, and Saddamm Hussein were not even on the map then.

I feel like the stereotypical parent who says, "You are going to enjoy yourself if I have to break every bone in your body:" Go, watch them movie, enjoy for what it is -- a great adventure that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Let Michael Moore cover the politics; go to Star Wars for fun.

It has been almost 2 years since I have done any Aikido but in Judo last night I was practicing with a new student with experience in Aiki ju jitsu.

He asked me to do some strikes at him, he was trying to do Jujitsu techniques on me but could not get them to work. I asked him to do the same to me and I practically threw him across the room onto his face with Ikkyo and then planted him on his back with kotegashi.

I was more shocked than he was.

Who are you, and what have you done with the real Michael Neal? It's not that shocking; things stay in your muscle memory for a long time. I havne't trained in Wing Chun since 1999 or thereabouts, but I retain enough to spit out a trap when Guro Andy is using me as uke. No big deal. You may now resume hating Aikido, confident in the knowledge this means absolutely nothing.

I really think one of the only things separating Aikido from some other arts is the method of training.

Some of us novices tried to do randori a few months ago at an open Sunday class. It didn't turn out too well. I reverted to Judo, Wrestling and Jujutsu and did not do a very good job. Needless to say I got busted in the lip by a strike someone threw and there was blood everywhere.

As I told myself, I don't need to do randori at this stage because if thats all I did I wouldn't be learning how to do proper technique...I'd just be reinforcing my old ways that rely on too much power. That is why soft training is important for some people. Now for people with no other martial arts experience...I would say more randori may be better. My sensei was also very mad at us!

In the BJJ i am studying, we will roll very slow for 3/4 of the class, and then spend approximately 15 to 20 minutes in "randori" (rolling). I think it is easier to do in BJJ and Judo because of the nature of the skills you are training. Much harder to do with aikido and still be accomplishing the goals of aikido. Those are my experiences.

I think you do have to be very cautious not to reinforce bad habits in aikido. The dynamic is slightly different from judo or bjj, IMHO.